Baldwin: Music scene needs work as The Carleton files for bankruptcy

HALIFAX – News that The Carleton Bar and Grill is in bankruptcy protection and at risk of closing is sad news for the local arts community, including the front-man for the bar’s house band.

When not working on his own solo music or playing with fellow Nova Scotia rocker Matt Mays in his band, Dartmouth’s Adam Baldwin has been a part of The Carletones that regularly play Saturday’s at the bar when he’s not on the road.

“I’ve fed my family with money I made at The Carleton over the years, so it’s sort of a kick in the guts to me,” Baldwin said of potentially losing the place where he honed his craft.

Baldwin lamented the latest loss for the music industry in Halifax, a scene he said has struggled for a number of reasons, but bureaucracy and construction of The Nova Centre are near the very top of the list.

“They’ll promote the city off the backs of musicians that play in these bars, but then cripple these music venues and bars in general with insane capacity rules and these sort of ‘nanny state’ alcohol regulations,” Baldwin said.

“They make it very difficult to survive, and then couple that with the albatross of a Nova Centre that they’re building right in front of the entertainment district in Halifax, it’s absurd, it’s surprising the whole street has fallen underground.”

Baldwin chose the life as an artist, he says, so he doesn’t want any sympathy for the struggles that come along with that life, but he finds it unfair the city will “tout itself as a music city,” while providing no adequate support to help the artistic community thrive in times of need.

“We’ve made a scene despite the city, I would say,” Baldwin said, adding he doesn’t think there is any malice involved on the part of municipal and provincial governments, “but they definitely haven’t done us any favours.”

He pointed to the ‘Be Bold’ campaign manifesto back in 2014 as Halifax was looking at a new branding strategy, which included a large section dedicated to the music scene and helping it succeed as many identified with the city as a hub for the arts.

“I don’t think it’s fair for them to have done that if they’re not willing to invest in it, or at least just try to throw us a bone here and there and help us out through this construction, and whatever else is going on,” Baldwin said.

Aside from having a venue to play, Baldwin said The Carleton, which opened in 2008, serves as a place for aspiring musicians to congregate, as many other bigger musicians like to have a drink when they’re in town, including Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo fame, and fellow Dartmouth native Joel Plaskett.

“It just means that Mike was doing something right,” Baldwin said, referring to bar owner Mike Campbell, whom he said he had a lot of respect for.

“When places attract very well respected musicians and upstart musicians want to hang out, you’re turning out musicians, and people far and wide know about that and they’ll pop in for a drink and know something is going on.”

Baldwin is not alone in his belief that construction of the Nova Centre has had a significant economic impact on the area, as seven businesses including The Carleton have filed a lawsuit to try attempt to recoup losses of what they allege is a 30 per cent drop in overall revenue since construction began.

Argyle Developments Inc. and its parent company Rank Inc., Halifax Convention Corp. and all three levels of government are named as defendants in the suit.

Baldwin hopes to play The Carleton in late October but said with the bar on the verge of closing, a number of musicians are also looking to play that stage in the coming weeks.

Owner: Many factors at play

Campbell said while Nova Centre construction and the fallout surrounding that — street closures, water shutdowns, parking restrictions, loss of parking spaces — played a role in the bar’s struggles but did say it’s not the only factor.

He said a general downturn in foot traffic was noted on Argyle Street this summer, fewer people are attending live shows in an age of Netflix, closures of the MacDonald Bridge at 7 p.m. daily for The Big Lift Project and other things, have also played a role.

Campbell, however, does say the impact of the Nova Centre construction has been “extremely significant,” and while he does anticipate some extra traffic when it opens, slated for 2017, he said the business is looking like it can’t hold on that long.

He estimates the bar has lost about $100,000 in the course of the past three or four years and the bar has essentially been surviving on a crowdfunding campaign he started back in January.

Campbell hopes he can recoup some losses as being part of the lawsuit against the Nova Centre and municipal government because of the lack of a formal construction mitigation plan to help businesses, but said some businesses have continued to thrive in the area.

“There are enough of us…that I think it’s reasonably demonstrable that what’s been happening downtown on the construction front has definitely had a major impact on the people there,” Campbell said.

“The immediate thing is the Nova Centre, but all the rest of the construction that’s down there that’s on Granville Street, it’s on Barrington Street, it’s on Sackville Street now, I love to see the construction, but all of it happening at the same time wreaks havoc.”

Much like Baldwin, he also felt it was unfair the city tries to market itself as a Canadian music mecca, but it’s a scene that’s been waning for years since its heyday in the 1990’s, and one he said has been neglected by local governments as well even after its ‘Be Bold’ push.

“People stick their hands up and go ‘music, music, music,’ but were not doing anything to help that fact,” he said, adding he remembers early in the 2000’s when the city was approached with being declared a music city like Toronto, Ont., or Austin, TX.

“It fell on deaf ears, the city didn’t do anything about it, it’s not something that costs you money, it’s just a position that you take,” he said.

“Austin is only twice the size of Halifax, there’s 800,000 plus people and there’s 1000 times as many things to do and they have 100 live music venues,” he said, adding that in Halifax, “we don’t have anyone forward thinking enough” to make those kinds of decisions.

He said promoters across the country know the headaches that come with booking a show in Halifax, something that he said is embraced in other large cities like Montreal and Toronto.

When Campbell opened the bar, the intention wasn’t exactly to draw the music scene that it has, but rather he needed to book more shows to attract people to the door at a time of economic downturn.

It turned out well for everybody he said, because musicians had a place to play, a paid gig to help with the rent, while the business was bringing people through the door willing to pay to watch a show, he said.

“The amount of red tape you have to go through is insane,” he said, using the nearby Economy Shoe Shop as an example, when they wanted to do a 20^th anniversary celebration on the street, he said, HRM said fire regulations meant they didn’t have enough room to get through.

“But it’s very easy for them to drop a crane in the middle of Argyle Street overnight, with no advanced notice to anyone on the street, a fire truck definitely can’t get through a crane,” he said.

“People would be astonished by the amount of crap you have to go through to get anything done downtown…police and fire don’t want anything to happen so they say no.”

The potential loss of the venue would have a major impact on musicians like Baldwin and the like, according to Campbell, as it would mean one less place to play and less money coming in to keep food on the table as a struggling artist.

Campbell’s background in the music industry also drew musicians to the club just to have a drink, so he said that may stop, but overall he doesn’t think it will mean big bands will stop touring the East Coast, but they will have one less option to play or see a show.

The bar has been a victim of its own success in that sense, he said, because people don’t often associate the place with going to have a beer or a gathering place, but rather just a place to see a live show.

Campbell also anticipates a rush of shows in the coming weeks with word of the possible closure starting to spread.

Due to the ongoing lawsuit, HRM spokesperson Adam Richardson said he couldn’t comment on the issues surrounding the regulations or construction mitigation, as he said it’s all part of a case before the courts.

He said HRM is currently working with Music Canada Live and other stakeholders in the local industry “to develop a strategy to measure the live music industry’s impact on the economy, employment and our communities.”

In terms of support for the arts community, Richardson said the “music and arts scene is something we take pride in as a municipality,” pointing to $400,000 he said the city uses to provide operating and project grants for local professional arts organizations, among other things.

“Over the past three years, the Halifax Regional Municipality has funded $450,000 through its Marketing Levy Special Events Reserve to annual, major hosting events and emerging music festivals including The Jazz Fest, Pop Explosion, the Canadian Country Music Awards, Groundswell Music Festival, and the ECMAs,” he said.

Richardson added the events department also invests a half-million dollars for ten civic events, nine of which he said, that employ a variety of local musicians.

“This weekend’s Hopscotch is an excellent example, and is headlined by a local artist,” he said, referring to Classified.

Keep it Factual

Add CityNews Halifax as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.